The Cornea Collaborative - A Chance to Become Even Better!
In April, Heartland Lions Eye Bank (HLEB) and Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation employees from multiple departments and offices teamed up as part of the national Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA) Cornea Collaborative. This Collaborative is comprised of eye banks throughout the country who share information and best practices in order to increase the quality and quantity of corneas available for transplant.

To join the Collaborative, the HLEB team had to identify and commit to goals by implementing Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) projects. These PDSA projects cover a variety of topics related to eye banking, and are designed to create and disseminate best practices for use in both the HLEB offices and throughout the country. HLEB's Cornea Collaborative team held its first meeting in May, and has since met monthly to continually review current PDSAs and implement future projects as well.

A current PDSA project is almost complete and has shown positive progress for the HLEB call center. The PDSA involved reviewing three potential donor cases in which consent was obtained by the call center staff, and discussing best practices that all three cases had in common. The review and implementation of these best practices has resulted in the call center's consent rate increasing by four percent in three months.

Additional projects that are being developed by HLEB and MLERF staff members include:
•Comparing the ease of use of instrument sizes used in the tissue retrieving process. It has been suggested different instrument sizes will be easier to use for technicians retrieving corneal tissue.
•Developing an improved feedback system for the technician evaluations on the corneas they retrieve. This revised feedback system would be more elaborate and provide technicians with helpful tips to improve their retrieval technique.

HLEB's ultimate goal is to make each step of the cornea transpant process more efficient, and increase the quality and quantity of the corneas used to give "the gift of sight." Together with the help of the Cornea Collaborative and eye banks throughout the U.S., HLEB can make even greater strides in pursuit of our goals.